Category Archives: Product Reviews

A couple of weeks ago after I had posted a picture of our feet in some compression socks during a weekend I had a twitter reply from Tiux Compression. They wanted to see if I would be interested to do a review for them. At first I was surprised because I have never been approached by a brand like this, my only other review was when I did the shorts review for TriBloggers and that was a little different. So the first thing I did was go online and try to find information about the brand. It is not a brand that comes to mind too often when talking about compression, typically you hear CEPs, 2XU, 3SLS, SKINS and many others that have flooded the mainstream when it comes to compression. This brand was different. Without going into detail about how the socks feel, which I will in a little bit I wanted to tell you a bit about the brand, or why I was drawn into accepting the offer.

To start, this company unlike others has a different delivery strategy for the products. For us triathletes, runners, cyclists, quality is important, but a lot of times price is as important. We find ourselves buying $50 – $70 pairs of compression socks (depending on the brand and site) that at the end of the day will do the same thing. From Running Competitor and many other sites that you find on-line pretty much tell you that compression works, how?

“Squeezing blood vessels causes them to open forcefully, which allows more blood and oxygen into the compressed muscle and helps shunt waste. This in-with-the-good-out-with-the-bad increases the working muscles’ capacity to produce energy and allows the wearer to run faster.”

So what do they do different? If you ask me, their main differentiator is the business delivery. They are a small start up company (which I think it will get big) and they are breaking into the no-middle man type of approach. In other words you won’t find these in any store that way it keeps their (and our) costs low. It is very similar to the way Xterra Wetsuits work, by doing it this way and having great customer service, they can definitely take a good chunk of the market. One more thing that makes them different and that really touched me was their 1% give back to a charity. Not only do I think this is amazing for a new company to be willing to give back but also to think about a charity that was until now new to me. Their charity is MAG (Mines Advisory Group) is a non-governmental organization that has worked in more than 40 countries since 1989, to save lives and build futures by:

Reclaiming land contaminated with remnants of conflict, such as landmines, cluster munitions, bombs, shells and mortars.

Finding ways to reduce the daily risk of death or injury for civilians.

Being from Colombia (even though they don’t work there yet) I have seen first hand the results of the armed conflict and the effects of landmines in the population. That really touched me personally and made me believe in this brand on top of what their product is about.

So now that we got that out of the way, hope it was helpful. Here is my official review. I got the socks in the mail last week, we were out of town so they were waiting for us. The package was nothing too fancy and the socks were there. I received the black performance (1st on the left) but they have 2 more options.

At first they looked like any other pair of compression socks. Looking at them closer, I noticed that they have a Left and Right sock. Which I thought was pretty cool. I left them there since we didn’t plan to run until after our trip and our planned run was over the weekend. I tried them on our Sunday run, being a 1 hr run, I thought it would be appropriate considering that I don’t run longer than 30 minutes without compression (got used to it). The socks are really easy to put on, you don’t feel the over compression that other socks give you that make it like a contortionist act to get them on (or off). I had to take them off without even running in them yet, because I had put them backwards… lol. So they came off easily. We went on our run, being cold outside they didn’t bother me, didn’t feel ultra warm (hot) either. The feet fit rather comfortable and with some compression on them. The calf section was a bit different than others I’ve had. I felt the difference in the calf support stabilization, and a graduated support from the bottom to the top. Not ultra tight either, I have a couple that after a run I have to take off because they feel like they are cutting my circulation.

To continue my test, I let Felipe use them as well. Being in our house means that we get to share some of our gear. These seem like a good fit since these are unisex socks and the size seemed to match the same for both of us. His impressions were about the same as mine. He liked that they sit right where they need to sit on the calf. Sometimes he says that compression socks tend to be too long and cover all the way above the knee, so that’s not comfortable. These are at the right height. He also used them to run in them yesterday for our 4 mile run and he loved them, said that he didn’t feel overly compressed but enough to feel comfortable and not jiggly.

My veridict on the socks…. I totally recommend them at $35.00 and free shipping, I think they come in at a great price. I like the feel, the colors, I need to get me some pink ones, and also really like the company idea of both eliminating the middle man and also the giving back. That’s what it is all about, we practice expensive sports that need sometimes a lot of gear, if we can save some money here and there it makes a big difference.

So…. now the fun part, if you are setting up your goals for 2015 and have some New Year’s resolutions or race-olutions, here is a giveaway for you, it will run until January 2nd and the winner will receive a pair of Tiux Compression Socks. Click on the link below and good luck!!!

*** Note: This is a copy and past of my guest post to ChiTriBloggers, if you want to get the original post, you can go here: http://www.listoftriathlonblogs.com/Excited to bring you another product review. Swirlgear is a Chicago based company that is in their second year of production and are looking toward their fall line launch soon. I had the chance to meet the owner and really loved her, her team and what they stand for. We, at List of Triathlon Blogs, really want to support local/small businesses and I purchased a pair of shorts for one of our bloggers to review since becoming a Swirlgear Ambassador. {Res was not compensated for the review other than receiving the shorts and I personally paid for the shorts for review}.Thanks Res for the review!Use 935 for FREE Shipping

Swirlgear Shorts Review

Hello everyone Res here, we recently connected with Triathlon Blogs and they offered me a chance to review some gear they had. Of course, being me I didn’t miss a chance to try something new and to see what this whole reviewing gear was all about. We read all the time about these type of blogs but thought to ourselves… well… we are not that popular so we’ll never get to do one of those cool things. So anyways they send me a pair of shorts from Swirl Gear I was actually so surprised because they offered them on Thursday night and by Saturday I had the shorts in the mail. When I opened the package I noticed the shorts where these

I didn’t know about this brand before I got the shorts and neither read anything about them before I tried them (actually haven’t read anything about them yet). I wanted my review to be as uninfluenced by other reviews as possible, so my review is my own experience with the shorts.

So here I go, my first impressions on the shorts as soon as I opened the package:

They felt really soft to the touch

The lining felt different from other built in briefs

I liked the length

The army green color… not my fave, but for the review purposes they worked

They felt relaxed when I first put them on.

We then planned to take them for a run during the week, things got really busy with work and other social

events and our run didn’t go as planned and then considering that the temps were in the 100’s here in Texas we weren’t pushing it too much, yes we don’t like the “dreadmill”

I ended up finally putting a decent run on Saturday on them. We had a swim/run workout so we headed out to it early in the morning. I had a swim first so I didn’t wear them there (for obvious reasons), my plan was to put them on after the swim.

I put them on after I got out of the water (of course drying myself first). At first they were OK, however I should’ve worn some underwear (some sort of tights or compression shorts under). I thought the lining material felt different than other shorts I’ve worn, particularly since I wasn’t wearing any undies. Yes… don’t start looking at me now funny… most of you don’t wear any undies either. :). FREEDOM!!!

We had an hour run, 6 miles more or less, I really like the fact that they were quick drying and didn’t feel hot. So what they advertise on the website “Moisture wicking fabric to help keep you dry and comfortable” was very true.

The size I was given was a Medium, I’m a size 6 pants, and wear between S and M depending on the brand. The M felt good but if I were to buy these, i would consider getting the small as they were a bit loose on the inseam and they kept riding up which we girls know is not the greatest feeling. I ended up chafing a bit b/c of the loose inseam but don’t think that would have happened with the smaller size so I definitely would recommend sizing down.

Overall, I definitely will use them for short training runs or gym workouts or even for walking and if i ever purchase the smaller size, would love to try them out for long runs. Thanks for the chance to review these shorts… hope it was helpful.